Good idea!
29/04/2013
China: Military license plates no longer allowed on luxury cars, more strictly controlled
27/04/2013
* China’s retrieval of lost relics needs time
China Daily: “Two bronze animal heads looted from a Chinese royal garden 149 years ago will soon be returned to China, beaming in a ray of hope despite the difficulties the country faces in bringing its treasure trove of cultural relics home.
English: Looting_of_the_Yuan_Ming_Yuan_by Anglo-French forces in_1860 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The family heading French luxury goods retailer Pinault said on Friday in Beijing that it will donate the rat and rabbit busts back to China for free.
The Pinault family is the majority shareholder of PPR, whose brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Puma, and Pinault Group Chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault has just concluded a two-day visit to China with French President Francois Hollande.
Cao Yuming, director of the administration office of the Yuanmingyuan, or Old Summer Palace, from which the two pieces were looted, said the move should encourage the return of more Chinese relics.
Cao described the planned donation as “an observation of international convention, a token of friendship and conducive to bringing more relics home.”
He also said an exhibition of the two pieces is likely to be held in the Yuanmingyuan once approved by the state cultural relics authorities.
The busts were among 12 animal head sculptures that formed the zodiacal water clock decorating the Calm Sea of Yuanmingyuan of Emperor Qianlong(1736-1795).
They were taken by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
But the two became the center of an international tug-of-war when they were auctioned for $39.6 million in Paris in 2009.
China has repeatedly opposed this auction. A Chinese businessman made the winning bid and then refused to pay on the grounds that the heads belong to his native country.
Five of the 12 bronze animal fountain heads in Yuanmingyuan have returned thus far, and the Pinault donation will take the number to seven. But the whereabouts of the five others remains unknown.
China, along with other countries to have lost cultural relics, is making efforts to repatriate such prized possessions, a drive which has generally received a positive response and support from the international community.
But more efforts are needed. UNESCO believes there are at least 17 million Chinese cultural relics abroad, far exceeding the number in the country’s own museums.”
via China’s retrieval of lost relics needs time |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.
See also: https://chindia-alert.org/historical-perspectives/
27/04/2013
* China agrees $8bn Airbus plane deal
BBC: “China has agreed to buy 60 planes from European firm Airbus, in a deal worth $8bn (£5.2bn) at list prices.
It is the first such deal since the European Union suspended the inclusion of foreign airlines in its controversial Emissions Trading Scheme.
China had voiced its opposition to the scheme, which charges airlines for the carbon they emit.
Last year, Airbus had alleged that China blocked firms from purchasing its planes amid the row over the scheme.
The deal was signed as part of a series of agreements during French President Francois Hollande’s two-day visit to China.
It includes an order for 42 Airbus A320 aircraft and 18 A330 planes.”
27/04/2013
* Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc
One day Europe may well come to regret not wqelcoming Turkey into the EU.
Reuters: “NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a “dialogue partner” of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia.
“This is really a historic day for us,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty after signing a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev.
“Now, with this choice, Turkey is declaring that our destiny is the same as the destiny of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries.”
China, Russia and four Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – formed the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan.”
via Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc | Reuters.
27/04/2013
* In China, the license plates can cost more than the car
Something like this used to be for Singapore care owners.
25/04/2013
* Xi Jinping orders generals and senior PLA officers to serve as privates
SCMP: “Chinese generals and senior officers will have to serve as the lowest-ranking soldiers for at least two weeks under a measure by President Xi Jinping to shake up the military and boost morale.
Xi, as the nation’s commander-in-chief, issued the order over the weekend, which the Ministry of National Defence publicised on its website.
It dictates that officers with the rank of lieutenant-colonel or above must serve as privates – the lowest-ranking soldier – for not less than 15 days. Generals and officers will have to live, eat and serve with junior soldiers during the period.
They need to provide for themselves and pay for their own food. They must not accept any banquet invitation, join any sight-seeing tours, accept gifts or interfere with local affairs
“They need to provide for themselves and pay for their own food. They must not accept any banquet invitation, join any sight-seeing tours, accept gifts or interfere with local affairs,” said the directive, which covers both the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police.
Leaders of regiment- and brigade-level units have to serve on the front line once every three years. Division- and army-level commanders must serve once every four years. Top leaders from army headquarters and military districts will do so once every five years.
The measure recalls a similar shake-up launched by Mao Zedong in 1958. Mao at the time famously said all military leaders should serve as foot soldiers for a month every year.
He used the chance to strengthen his control of the military and forced many powerful marshals and generals into retirement or exile.”
via Xi Jinping orders generals and senior PLA officers to serve as privates | South China Morning Post.
Related articles
- PLA generals go for the money, and Xi Jinping raises no objections (worldtribune.com)
25/04/2013
* The Chinese Dream won’t go back to sleep
The Times: “One died in Boston, the other lost her home in Sichuan. Both symbolised the hopes of millions
Last week in different corners of the planet, the lives of two very important Chinese women were ripped apart: one on the streets of Boston, the other under the rubble of the Sichuan earthquake. Both women were living the Chinese Dream. And both could spell big trouble for President Xi Jinping.
Lu Lingzi was a 23-year-old mathematics graduate student at Boston University, who died in the marathon bombing. The hard-working daughter of hard-working, white-collar parents from Shenyang, she was a paragon of the generation that has emerged as China’s economy grows and the new middle classes replicate themselves for the first time in history. Not a single opportunity in Lingzi’s short life was squandered. She battled for internships at banks and accounting firms. The family saved every yuan so that their daughter could study in the United States.
The other woman is Wei Ruqun, a victim of last Saturday’s earthquake. She is alive but has almost nothing to live for. Now 47, Ruqun has toiled in a variety of factories since her teens as one of China’s 260 million migrant workers whose sweat and aspiration have fuelled the country’s industrial engine.
Her career, a diverse list of drudgery that includes assembling cheap goods for export to the West, has won her some tiny shavings from the Chinese economic boom, hard-won dividends of the version of capitalism that Beijing unleashed in the 1980s, which allowed hundreds of millions of peasants to imagine themselves as consumers for the first time. Over the decades Ruqun saved to buy a small house in the village where she was born. On Saturday, a few months after the dream house was finished, it collapsed in the earthquake with family members inside.
The two women’s fates — reported on TV and discussed on Weibo, China’s version of Facebook and Twitter — have humanised for many Chinese people social trends almost too big and fast-moving to think about in the abstract. By studying abroad, Lingzi was fulfilling an increasingly common middle-class dream. Her story has fascinated tens of millions of middle-class Chinese who know someone like her or want to do what she did. Ruqun is one of hundreds of micro-tragedies of the Sichuan quake. Barely an adult in China cannot imagine the agony of losing a house that represents your life savings.
The two women are important for the ease with which ordinary Chinese can empathise with them. But they are politically important too. Both are the creations and creators of what will soon be the largest economy on Earth. The loss of Lingzi and the shattering of Ruqun are personally terrible, but their significance lies in the fact that there are thousands, perhaps millions, of Chinese women like them: all patiently shaping individual aspiration into something real. Their two lives, though different in so many ways, are perfect products of China 2013.”
via The Chinese Dream won’t go back to sleep | The Times.
Related articles
- Local paper names Chinese victim in Boston blasts (bostonherald.com)
- Chinese bomb victim went to elite school in China (sfgate.com)
25/04/2013
* Southeast Asia to reach out to China on sea disputes
Reuters: “Southeast Asian nations stepped up efforts on Thursday to engage China in talks to resolve maritime tensions, agreeing to meet to try to reach common ground on disputed areas of the South China Sea ahead of planned discussions in Beijing later this year.
Efforts by ASEAN to craft a code of conduct to manage South China Sea tensions all but collapsed last year at a summit chaired by Cambodia, a close economic ally of China, when the group failed to issue a closing statement for the first time.
Cambodia was accused of trying to keep the issue off the agenda despite a surge in tension over disputed areas and growing concern about China’s assertive stance in enforcing its claims over a vast, potentially energy-rich sea area.
Thursday’s initiative came as the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tried to patch up differences that shook the group last year, but struggled to make progress on long-held plans to agree on a dispute-management mechanism.
Thailand, which has the role of ASEAN coordinator with China, called for the talks ahead of an ASEAN-China meeting expected in August to commemorate 10 years since they formed a “strategic partnership”.”
via Southeast Asia to reach out to China on sea disputes | Reuters.
Related articles
- * China, ASEAN agree to develop code of conduct in South China Sea (chindia-alert.org)
- Asia-Pacific countries poised to start free-trade talks (business.inquirer.net)
25/04/2013
* China Unicom 1Q Net Jumps 89% on 3G, Fixed-Line Broadband Growth
WSJ: “China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. 0762.HK -0.18% said Thursday net profit surged 89% in the first quarter from a year earlier as its third-generation mobile communications network and fixed-line broadband businesses continued their rapid growth.
China Unicom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Chinese telecommunications carriers are scrambling to ramp up their networks to accommodate the rapid increase in data traffic in the world’s largest mobile market, as more people replace their basic cellphones with smartphones. China has already overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest smartphone market.
Fierce competition between China Unicom and its rivals China Telecom Corp. CHA +1.75% and China Mobile Ltd. 0941.HK +1.21% has led to increasing costs, as carriers spend more on building networks and subsidizing handsets to attract more valuable subscribers who pay for speedier wireless services. In the latest quarter, China Unicom said revenue growth outpaced that of costs.
China Unicom, the country’s second-largest mobile operator by subscribers after China Mobile, said net profit was 1.90 billion yuan ($308 million) in the period ended March 31, up from 1.01 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenue rose 15% to 70.6 billion yuan from 61.19 billion yuan a year earlier.
China Unicom, the first of China’s carriers to offer Apple Inc.’s AAPL -0.16% iPhone, has seen profitability rise on its efforts to offer high-end smartphones and attract users with more expensive cellphone plans. Still, the increasing popularity of low-cost smartphones has led to falling average revenue per user—a key metric of telecom carriers’ health. First-quarter average revenue per user for its 3G business fell to 78.2 yuan from 93.9 yuan in the same period last year.
Subsidies for 3G phones rose to 2.23 billion yuan in the quarter from 1.98 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Major local carriers are also preparing to launch faster fourth-generation networks. Capital expenditure for network infrastructure and subsidies for smartphones continue to put pressure on major local carriers, even though smartphone users are boosting their data communications revenue.”
via China Unicom 1Q Net Jumps 89% on 3G, Fixed-Line Broadband Growth – WSJ.com.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 